2016 gave us some great albums, and having listened to a lot of them, I thought I would share and talk a little bit about some of my favourites you might have missed. I highly recommend all of these albums, if you missed any they are well worth a listen!
Camp Cope - Camp Cope
A combination of brutal lyrical honesty, catchy bass hooks and memorable choruses made this one of my favourite rock albums of the year. Simple, too the point and not outstaying its welcome, Camp Cope know exactly what they're trying to do with this record and they do so unapologetically.
Death Touches Us, From The Moment We Began To Love - Departures
Departures stand apart from the mostly average crop of melodic hardcore bands with an album that is simply filled with great songs from front to back. This is the kind of album that takes numerous listens to really appreciate, but at the same time there are great individual tracks littered across the runtime. Lyrically, this is an album you can really dive into, and most likely come out the other side a little different for it. Highly recommended.
Splendour & Misery - Clipping.
The term "space opera" isn't something usually associated with rap music, but that is exactly what hip-hop duo Clipping did on Splendour & Misery. This album presents an incredibly detailed, cinematic and fluid narrative following the protagonist known as Cargo 2331 as he travels through space and struggles with "space madness". In comparison to this year's earlier release from Clipping, "Wriggle", this album is disarmingly pristine and polished, a flipside to "Wriggle"'s filthy, rough sounding production, despite the trio maintaining their affinity for using rumbling, distorted white noise as an instrument. At the very least, listen to this album for something you almost certainly haven't heard before.
Holy Ghost - Modern Baseball
For the first time Modern Baseball have split the songwriting duties of dual vocalists Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald to their own respective sides of the record, as opposed to simply switching back and forth from song to song. The result is the band's most cohesive and complete full length, despite being their shortest to date. Each side has its own distinctive character, while maintaining a cohesive indie-punk sound throughout. Both sides deal with different traumatic events, detailed in unflinching honesty both on this album and in the band's "Tripping In The Dark" documentary; Jake dealing with his grandfather's death, and Brendan dealing with his near-suicide attempt, substance abuse and various other mental health issues. Despite the bleak subtext, Holy Ghost is dripping with optimism; perhaps not that everything will be alright, but that at least they can continue doing what they love with their best friends. It's infectious.
Everything Was Sound - Silent Planet
After Silent Planet's 2014 debut The Night God Slept blew me away on so many levels, I was anxious and excited to see where the band would go next. What they did was not only better than The Night God Slept, but one of the best metalcore albums to be released in the last 10 years. A loose concept album, Everything Was Sound tackles mental illness in a fresh, thought-provoking and frankly mind-blowing way. Frontman Garrett Russell's virtuosic lyrical prose and delivery take the spotlight once again, but a more effective and nuanced exploration of musical light and shade improves upon The Night God Slept's occasional lack of dynamic subtlety, as well as noticeably more tasteful use of bassist Thomas Freckleton's clean singing. In terms of heavy music, this is a serious contender for album of the year as well as a wake up call to the rest of an often stale, cookie-cutter genre. This is made all the more impressive by the fact that the band has only been around for five years, and should Silent Planet continue on their current trajectory, then Everything Was Sound is a an ominous indicator towards a limitless future.
Failure, Subside - Départe
Failure, Subside - Départe
This album is easily my favourite doom album of 2016, and it comes from a band from Tasmania, Australia; Départe. I had the pleasure of listening to Failure, Subside not knowing anything about the band or what I was about to listen to; I then had my soul scalded by an album so cold, dark and hopeless it left a clean, distinguishable mark on me. Slow, moody grooves, pummelling blast beats, mysterious atmospheric passages, ferocious but entirely intelligible screams and - a pleasant surprise - clean singing that sits perfectly in the mood of the album without feeling jarring or unwanted. The production is absolutely beautiful on this album, the vocals sitting nestled perfectly amid a thick, impenetrable wall of guitars and bass, driven by warm, well rounded drums. This album came out of nowhere for me, and is definitely one of my surprise favourites. Just listen to it.
Outgrown Things - Movements
I heard Movements' debut single "Protection" on YouTube when it was released midway through 2015, and I was immediately drawn to their familiar but fresh blend of post-hardcore and emo. Being a huge fan of bands like La Dispute, Being As An Ocean and Touché Amoré, I am always a little cautious initially when I hear spoken word in this genre, having heard it both work brilliantly a fall flat on its face; but Movements use this vocal delivery tastefully, amidst pained screaming and tuneful clean singing. There's a simplicity to Movements' sound that is immediately appealing; they play songs filled with equal amounts of nostalgia and pain that are instantly singable in the shower or car. A debut full-length sometime in the near future would certainly be met with excitement from me.
Promise Everything - Basement
Another great emo record from 2016 came from Basement, a band that I had always enjoyed somewhat but never been a huge fan of necessarily. Promise Everything has grown on me substantially since my first listen, for reasons I can't quite pinpoint; I simply can't get the songs on it out of my head, and I find myself listening to it more and more. While for many this album perhaps may not have much in the way of distinguishing features from other bands in the genre, Promise Everything just seems to hit the mark for me and is a personal favourite.
American Football (LP2) - American Football
There isn't much to say about American Football's 1999 debut full-length and the profound impact it has had over the last 17 years that hasn't been said before; a long awaited follow-up/reunion album was always doomed to be compared to and picked apart by lovers of what is now a staple in underground music, spawning countless imitators and influencing a generation of emo rockers. While it was never going to reach the subtle, understated brilliance or recreate the awkward, introspective charm that has made LP1 a cult favourite, LP2 is a damn good album recorded by a band that has grown and matured almost beyond recognition in the 17 years between albums. The hallmarks of that American Football sound are all there - lush, twinkling guitar arrangements and groovy, jazz-tinged drumming - but in the same way the band members are no longer introverted college students jamming in their bedrooms, LP2 sounds exhausted and jaded while also fresh and a little (okay, a lot) nostalgic for the glory days that might not have even existed in the first place.
Slow Burn - Old Gray
At only 20 minutes this album certainly isn't long, but it packs in the biggest sledgehammer to the feels that I heard in 2016. With most of the songs being well below the two minute mark, Slow Burn is anything but a slow burn, furiously jumping from song to song with a bipolar immediacy that is completely disarming. Certainly not for everyone, a unique atmosphere of unhinged anger tinged with an unavoidable sadness drips from every deliberately placed note as the band aim for the jugular with scathing punk/hardcore tunes littered with ambient "breathers" and occasional spoken word passages. It is impossible not to be drawn into this world of aching melancholy laced with the kind of raw, unedited emotion that stays stuck in your throat well after the record is finished. I found myself thinking a lot about this album without realising it, and that's exactly what Slow Burn is; the kind of album that you will either pass on immediately or not be able to pass on from any time soon. A personal highlight is the harrowing but somehow hopeful track "Like Blood From A Stone". This album will either mean nothing to you or alter you permanently. How exactly it will change you is entirely up to you.
A few more great albums you might have missed:
"Chemical Miracle" by Trophy Eyes
"Polar Similar" by Norma Jean
"My Woman" by Angel Olsen
"Winter Wheat" by John K. Samson
"Winter Wheat" by John K. Samson
"Blush" by Moose Blood
Were there any lesser known albums that you loved last year and I didn't mention? Do you agree or disagree with any of these? What sort of content do you want to read on this blog? Let me know in the comments!
There will be regular music reviews coming soon, so if you want to hear my thoughts on a new record let me know.
Take care,
Jonty
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